The invention concerns decorative panels and particularly concerns a laminate of textile materials having a decorative fabric surface, molded to form a kick panel for the door of an automotive vehicle.
Many baseline automotive interior doors are now made from vinyl-covered, wood-filled, resinated materials on highly automated equipment. To enhance the appearance of the door, a carpet insert known as the kick panel is added at the bottom. The door normally has had a ridge molded around the area where the carpet is to be inserted. A flat die cut piece of pressure-sensitive adhesive backed fabric is pressed into the space surrounded by the ridge which hides the fabric edge.
Door shapes have become more complex to maximize the interior space of down-sized cars, and contouring of the door and subsequently the kick panel have become necessary. The flat die cut door panels will not conform to the door without puckering, stretching or shrinking.
The carpet most often used is a tufted cut pile material with inherent fraying qualities when the material is die cut. The normal procedure for stopping this fraying is to add a binding strip around the edges or to coat the reverse side with a latex coating which holds the tufts in place during die cutting. This same binding or coating, however, stiffens the carpet and inhibits the contouring of the cut part when used on shaped doors.
To meet the demands of contoured doors and overcome the fraying problem of the edges, we have developed a technique of making door panel inserts using a non-woven moldable felt substrate covered with carpet and molded in such a manner that the edges are turned-down so they face towards the door panel onto which they are fastened. This effectively hides the edge and at the same time inhibits excessive fraying and loss of tufts. The curved edges of the panel are made possible by use of a non-woven moldable substrate in connection with a unique mold design and side cutting technique.
Examples of known vehicle door kick panels include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,222,200, 2,542,181, 3,066,949, and 3,015,516.